stonebrakee



(No Model.) "2' Sheets-8heet 1.4

W. STONEBRAKER.

HOMINY MILL.

No. 285,085. Patented Sept. 18, 1888,.

(No Model.) v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W. STONEBRAKER..

HOMINY MILL.

Patented Sept. 18, 188.3;

[7152 as .34 s 1 In yak/7 0);

Umrno STATES PATENT Fl- ICE.

WILLIAM STONEBRAKER, OE HAGERSTOXVN, INDIANA.

HOMlNY-MILL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 285,085, datedSeptember 18, 1883.

- Application filed May 28, 1883. (No model.) ll

.To all who/12, it may concern:

. Beit knownthatLWILLIAMSTONEBRAKER, of Hagerstown, in the county ofWVayne and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Hominy-Mills, which improvement is fully set forth in the followingspecification and accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a sideelevation of the exterior of the improved hominy-mill. Fig. 2 is acentral vertical longitudinal section of the same. Fig. 3 is a crossvertical section through line of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an end view of theforward part, with the blast-fan removed. Fig. 5 is a perspective viewof the perforated chute. Fig.6isaperspective view of one of the bladesof the shaft or reel, and Fig. 7 is a side view of a section of theshaft and one of the blades.

The object of the present invention is to 0011 struct a durable andefficient hominy-milll In the operation of this class of machinesheretofore it has been found that while they are serviceable in a degreethe tendency is to crush or destroy the grain or mutilate it, instead ofsmoothly removing the shell or coating of the grain. To accomplish thisin a satisfactory 1 manner, and at the same time to thoroughlyseparate'the strippings of the grain and grade the same, I firstconstruct a reel, shaft, or cylinder, around which is placed atintervals independent curved blades in a spiral form, or spirallydisposed along the cylinder. The cylinder is designed to revolve withina semi-cylindrical or concave shell having perforations and an uppersection,which is the cover. The

cal concave shell permitting thehulls to pass through and be properlygraded.

Itfurther consists in having a blast-fan operated by the same shaft thatrevolves the cylinder and blades, said blast being so directed as to actthrough the falling hulled grains and thoroughly cleanse the same beforeleaving the machine; and in addition to this a conveyer isprovided,which conducts the hulls andfiner particles along to the rearend of the machine and deposits the same on an inclined screen, whichseparates the whole into two or more grades.

In the accompanying drawings, A A represent the posts of the machine,having the longitudinal beams B B and cross-beams B B, uniting the samein any suitable manner.

C is a horizontal shaft journaled to the crossbeams B, and running theentire length of the frame, with the ends thereof. proj ccting beyondthe cross-beams, so as,to receive on one end a driving-pulley, D,theopposite projecting end being designed to pass through a blast-fan orblower-casing, E, and provided with the fan E. This shaft 0 is providedwith a drum, F, throughout that portion lying between the journals, andon this drum is placed a number of blades, G, of the form shown in Fig.6.

These blades or wings are in the form of the half-sector of acircle,adapted to fit around the drum, and are slightly spirally disposedaround said drum. Each sector is provided with ears G,whi;ch restagainst the drumF, and these ears have screw-holes,enabling the bladesto be securely fastened by screws to the drum, or to be removed, whennecessary, and replaced. Both sides of these blades or wingshaveabracted surfaces, or are roughened, so that as the drum rapidly revolves andthe spirally-inclined blades cut through the mass of grain the abradedsurfaces of the blades will file or grind off the hulls.

I do not confine myself to any particular number of blades on the drum,nor to the manner of disposing them thereon; but I prefer that eachblade shall be secured to the drum i11- dependently of the others, sothat as the drum rotates the various blades will pass through the massof grain in successive strata, and thereby of grain. Surrounding thisdrum and blade is a cylinder, preferably made in two parts,

tionary, or permanently attached to the frame 'atthc ends, as shown. Theare of this half of thoroughly come in contact with the wholebody 9 5the lower half, H, of the cylinder being sta- IOO , grain is fed.

ing or hulling.

the cylinder is the same as the peripheral arc of the blades G; Theupper half, I, of the cylinder is hinged to the lower half, or removablyattached thereto, so that the drum and blades may be uncovered whennecessary. The front end of the hinged upper half, I, of the cylinderhas an opening 011 top, and is provided with a hopper, 1, into which thei The lower or stationary half, H, of the cylinder is perforated itsentire length, as shown in Fig. 5. The rear third has perforations, J,of much larger mesh than the other two-thirds, so that the hulled grainwill pass through, it being designed to allow only the hulls and groundgrain to pass through the line meshes J and drop onto the screen. Aslide valve, K, is placed in the lower half of the cylinder at a pointpreferably between the coarse and fine meshes J J, so that the motion ofthe moving massof grain eanbe regulated at will to secure more or lessscour- It may be preferable to have two of these valves, one on eachside of the drum F. These valves are preferably as wide as the diameterof the drum or cylinder F, and are vertically disposed, so that whentheir inner ends (which are concaved to fit the cylinder) rest againstthe cylinder, there will be space above and below the valves for thepassage of the grain. These valves do not,therefore, at any time whollycheck the passage of the grain, but merely retard the movement of thesame.

Beneath the shell H, and parallel therewith, is a spiral conveyer, L,which extends rearward two-thirds or more of the length of the drum F,or up to the point in the shell H where the coarse perforations J begin.A casing, M, surrounds the conveyer L, and eX tends up slopingly to thesides of the shell H, so that all the hulls and ground grain in theshell H, as they pass through the perforations J, will fall onto theconveyer. M is a pulley on the shaft L of the conveyer, and a belt, N,passing over this pulley and over a similar one on the main shaft 0,transmits motion to the conveyer L. The rearward end of the casing'orshell M has an opcning,(closed by a valve, 0,) through which thecontents of the shell pass. The spindle O of the valve passes throughthe front wall of the machine, and a tension-spring, O, or othersuitable means, attached to the spindle 0, may be employed to adjust,hold, or regulate the valve.

Below the shellsHM is a shoe, P, suspended at its rear end by the linkQ, and at its rear end to the arms Q. The link Q extends over aneccentric, R, 011 the shaft 0, so that as the shaft revolves the rearend will be rapidly vibrated. The shoe has an inclined bottom, S, and ascreen, S. inclined floors, T T, on the same plane, separated from eachother, so as to provide an opening, U, between the same. The lower endof the rear floor, T, is also a' short distance above the end of theframe or shoe, so

Beneath this screen are two as to provide an opening or passage-way, U.At the lower end of the screen S is an opening, V, for a dischrg'e-spout.

Directly beneath the rear end of the shell H, under the area covered bythe large perforations J, is a forwardly-inclined screen, \V,

which is designed to receive and convey the hulled grain to thediseharge-spout WV, while the perforations of the said screen willpermit the hulls to pass through and fall onto the forwardlyinclinedtable S.

The blast-fan E, located on the rear end of the machine, has itsblast-pipeX on the lower side curved forwardly, uniting with thegraindischarge tube XV, midway between the ends of the latter, so thatthe merging of the tubes X \V forms a U -shaped tube, with thegrain-discharging branch leading out from the lower side. Thedischarge-tube Y, for the blast, communicates with the upper end of theinner limb of the U shaped tube, so that when thehulled grain passesdown past the valve Y into the U -shaped tube X, and thence down to andout the dischargetube W, the air from the blastfan passes up through thefalling grain in the opposite direction and escapes through thedischarge-tube Y. A valve, Y, at the upper end of the tube X, serves toregulate the flow of the grain.

It is evident that only a small portion of the air from the fan willescape upwardly through the opening formed by the valve Y, the bulk ofthe air being forced through the tube Y. Thevalve Y is regulated andheld adjustable by means of a spring, X, on the outside of the machine,which coaets with the spindle Y of l the valve.

The operation of the device is as follows:

Motion is imparted to the shaft in the direction of the dart. This,through the intermediary mechanism, imparts motion to the shoe 1? to theconveyer L and to the blast-fan E. The grain is fed into the hopper I,and passes down into the shell H. The blades having the abradedsurfaces, rapidly passing through the mass, come in contact with andstrip the hulls from every part of the grain, and, owing to the spiralinclination of the blades, gradu ally move the mass of grain rearwardlyand over the finely-perforated shell, the hulls meanwhile passing downthrough the perforations J into the conveyer L, by which they arecarried forward and deposited on the inclined shoebottom S, and thencedown over the screen S, and discharged at V. As the hulls pass over thescreen S the finer particles pass through the perforations of the upperhalf of thescreen and fall onto the upper floor, T, and are collected atthe discharge-tube U. The coarser particles pass through theperforations of the lower half of the screen and fall onto thelowertable, T, and are discharged at the tube U. The largest or coarsestparticles, of course, pass over the sieve and out through thedischargetube V. In the meantime the hulled grain H onto the coarsescreen W beneath, so that all foreign matter or small imperfect grainsmay pass through and be received by the inclined floor S. The grainitself passes over the valve Y and down into the U shaped tube. Theblast at the same time passes upwardly through the falling grain, "andthis thoroughly cleanses the same from all impurities, discharging thesame through the tube Y, .while the grain passes down and is dischargedthrough the tube W.

What I claim as new is- 1. In ahominy-mill, the revolving drum havingthereon at intervals the independent halfsectors spirally inclined, andwith both faces abraded or roughened, in combination with the semicylindrical permanent shell, having large-and small perforations,substantially as herein set forth.

2. In a hominy-mill, the semi cylindrical shell H, having alongtwo-thirds of its length fine perforations and along its remaininglength coarse perforations, and the valves K between the line of saidfine and-coarse perforations, in combination with the rotating drumhaving the spirally-inclined bl ades,substantially as herein set forth.

3. The combination of the drumhavin g there on the spirally-inclinedroughened blades, and

the perforated shell H, having the large and small perforations, asshown, with the casing M and conveyor L beneath said shell and paralleltherewith, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

4. The combination of the drum having there- 011 tlfe spirally-inclinedroughened blades, and the semi-cylindrical perforated shell havingthelarge and small -'perforations, as shown, with therearwardly-inclined sloping screen W and the vibrating shoe having thescreen S, divided sloping floors T T, and separate dischargespouts U UV, substantially as herein set forth.

i 5. The combination, in a hominy-mill, of the'drum having thereonspirally-inclined roughened blades, and the perforated semi-cylindricalshell H, having the large and small perforations, with the slopingscreen W, the U-shaped discharge and blast nozzle X, and the blast-fanE, substantially as hereinset forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this2d day of April, 1883, in the presence of witnesses.

\VILLIAM STONEBRAKER. \Vitnesses:

WILLIAM 1?. KNoDE, JOHN M. Lourz.

